For two weeks, a coalition of Virginia ministries has carried one message from pulpit to pulpit across the Commonwealth: before you vote on November 3, read the whole amendment — not just the sentence you will see in the booth. That tour is nearly finished. One stop remains.
Stand for Life & Marriage — a partnership of the Standing for Freedom Center, the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia, and The Family Foundation — holds its final gathering this Wednesday, August 27, at 6:30 p.m. at The Heights Church in Colonial Heights. It is free and open to anyone, and it is the last chance to hear the tour’s speakers in person before the vote.
Two Virginia organizations anchor this work, and I urge you to reach out to them directly:
Why does a church tour matter this much? Because on November 3, Virginians will not pass an ordinary law. They will vote on whether to rewrite the Commonwealth’s Bill of Rights — permanently. One amendment would write a fundamental right to abortion into Article I under strict scrutiny, the highest bar in American law, and would let a single physician authorize a late-term abortion for the mother’s physical or mental health with no gestational ceiling. The other would strike Virginia’s definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Once ratified, no court can undo either — a constitution cannot be struck down for violating itself.
I will own my conviction as conviction: I believe every unborn child is an image-bearer, and that marriage was God’s to define before it was ever any commonwealth’s. Those are moral claims, and I hold them before God. The legal facts above are not opinion — they are the text, and you can read it yourself.
I made the fuller case to the pews last month in “A Plea to the Pews.” The short version is the watchman’s: sound the trumpet while the sword is still on the horizon. Ten weeks remain, and one gathering. The neighbor who plans to vote yes is not the enemy — many are sincere — and we lose the argument the moment we forget it. Warn plainly, love genuinely, and leave the outcome with the One who has never lost a battle.
The abortion amendment, HJ1 (§ 11-A): lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HJ1
Official voter information and registration: elections.virginia.gov
Stand for Life & Marriage — the campaign behind this tour, with event details, prayer guides, a line-by-line reading of both amendments, and legal guidance for pastors.
SBC of Virginia — a fellowship of more than 800 Virginia churches.
